EU Influence on U.S. Internet Law, Policy and Practice in the field of digital advertising

Presentation to the Yale Law School / Floyd Abrams Institute conference “Commercial Speech and the First Amendment 2020” 

2 June 2020

Introduction

In keeping with the subject of today’s conference, I will focus on the regulation of online advertising, talking briefly about the existing situation and then focusing on what’s coming next. I will occasionally zoom out to look at EU regulation of online platforms more broadly.  

What a time it is to be talking about platform regulation! We have no Donald Trump in Europe, but we do have lots of other presidents. The techlash over here is almost as heated, and the basic issues around platform responsibility are similar: should tech companies be doing more, i.e. taking greater responsibility for keeping their platforms safe and lawful, and for dealing with the negative externalities of their success? Should they be doing less, e.g. to interfere with their users’ speech and/or personal data? Commercial speech and political advertising are a core part of the debate. As in the US, the European debate is throwing up a broad range of concerns and demands, which are diffuse and often contradictory, but which are also so heated and repeated that some kind of additional regulation is all but inevitable. A major new EU legislative initiative launched just this morning, which I will get to. Continue reading “EU Influence on U.S. Internet Law, Policy and Practice in the field of digital advertising”

Het juiste evenwicht in het informatierecht

Tijdens een congresmiddag van eduLex over Het Nieuwe Mediarecht gaf ik een presentatie over belangenafweging in het informatierecht, aan de hand van ontwikkelingen in de rechtspraak van het Hof van Justitie over verstrekking van klantgegevens door providers, filtering en blokkering van inbreukmakende websites, de uitleg van auteursrechtelijke beperkingen, de bewaarplicht verkeersgegevens en het ‘recht om vergeten te worden’.

Filtering away infringement – mock trial

During the Information Influx conference organised by the Institute for Information Law, I took part in a mock trial against Prof. Dirk Visser on the merits – or lack thereof – of ordering internet intermediaries to filter or block infringing online content.

The debate was part of a panel entitled Filtering away Infringement: Copyright, Injunctions and the Role of ISPs.  A write-up can be found here.

Internettussenpersonen & auteursrecht

Op 21 november heb ik een presentatie gegegeven op de PAO-cursus Actualiteiten Auteursrecht in Leiden, over de positie van internet tussenpersonen in discussies over auteursrechtinbreuk op internet. Mijn presentatie is hier te downloaden.